Middle East

Aug. 01, 2014 | 12:00 PM

Syrian refugee women face sexual exploitation

Jamil, who takes care of her 19-year-old disabled son, said she was falsely accused of prostitution after Lebanese police confused her for another suspected prostitute in her building. (AP Photo/Diaa Hadid)

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Syrian women and girls are growing more vulnerable to sexual exploitation in Lebanon as their exile drags out and poverty increases, relief workers say.

Others like Samar engage in what relief workers call survival sex, striking up sexual relationships with men who can provide rent or food. With Syrian women seen as vulnerable, they face sexual harassment in the streets and exploitation by bosses, landlords and charity workers on whom they rely, as described by more than a dozen refugee women interviewed by the Associated Press.

As of July, 255 people, mostly Syrian women, have been arrested this year on prostitution charges, more than the 205 who were arrested during all of 2013, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police regulations.

One factor several relief workers pointed to was that rent aid which many refugees once received -- usually about $200 a month -- had dried up.

Manal, a refugee girl in northern Lebanon, told the AP she was married at 15 to a 23-year-old man.

Many of the women complained of the reputation Syrian refugee women are burdened with in Lebanon.